LOUISVILLE — It was like South Oldham had its wheels stuck in the mud.

Jason Stamm/The Oldham Era

SOHS senior forward Mary Dye drives for a layup in the first half of Mercy's 59-43 win Friday night.

The Lady Dragons put their foot on the gas and would move a little bit, then they’d shift to reverse and try again, but get advance the same amount out of the rut.

Try as it might, SOHS couldn’t catch up from an early deficit, falling to Mercy 59-43 in the quarterfinals of the Louisville Invitational Tournament at Bellarmine University. The Lady Dragons received a bye to the quarterfinals.

“If we would’ve made some better decisions when we were making those runs, I think we would’ve gotten our intensity up,” senior guard Jasmine Whitfield said. “But we’ll learn from it, especially considering we haven’t been playing on a stage like this, which other teams like Mercy have been used to.”

Whitfield’s 19 points and 11 rebounds kept SOHS in the game, but couldn’t get the Lady Dragons out of the rut.

The Jaguars scored the game’s first six points and took a 28-17 lead into halftime. Throughout the third quarter, SOHS trimmed the deficit to as few as nine points, but also trailed by as much as 13.

Mercy’s height proved to be tough to handle. On back to back possessions early in the third quarter, the Jaguars had three and two offensive rebounds. Both ended in fouls by the Lady Dragons and 4 of 4 free throws by Mercy.

“It was really tough to rebound because for being so tall and lanky, they’re surprisingly strong,” SOHS senior guard Maddie Wright said. “It was hard to get inside and push them out of the box that we operate in near the basket.”

The Lady Dragons went on a 6-1 run to close the gap to 51-43 with 3:18 remaining, but went scoreless the rest of the game, as the Jaguars finished on an 8-0 run themselves.